Thursday Threads

Gee, where would you like to start?  OK, if you insist....

The Duel In The Desert - I refuse to acknowledge their chosen moniker, as it demonstrates a lack of respect for the history of our game:

PARAMUS, N.J. -- Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to announce their much-discussed winner-take-all match was on for Thanksgiving weekend. 

Turner Sports will produce the pay-per-view telecast of the event, which will offer $9 million to the winner and will be played Friday, Nov. 23, at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.

Twitter, eh?  These crazy kids...But the key takeaway is that it'll be PPV, more on that in a bit.

More from Phil:

"It's an opportunity for us to bring golf to the masses in prime time during a period where we don't have much going on in the world of golf," Mickelson said Wednesday after his pro-am round at Ridgewood Country Club ahead of Thursday's Northern Trust Open. 

"It's a way to show a side you don't normally see by having us miked up to hear some of the interaction between us."

Yeah, but this has all been done before....  Unless, of course, Tiger is going to share his flatulence repertoire with us.

Now, did $9 million strike you as an odd number?  I'm pretty sure I had previously heard them bandy about a ten million dollar figure.  Wassup with that?

He said a decision had to be made on whether to let in a lot of spectators or keep it very small. And while it was reported that the initial winner-take-all fee would be $10 million, Mickelson said the PGA Tour had a role in having it reduced, ostensibly because it pays that amount to the winner of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Those spoilsports in Ponte Vedra Beach don't want anyone to have any fun, do they?

"With only two guys, we should have a total different experience with fans, because we will have smaller galleries that won't necessarily have ropes that can walk inside the fairway and up near the greens," Mickelson said. "We'll have mics on both us and our caddies and you'll be able to hear all of the banter as well as commentating that will be more interactive. 

"The idea is not just to have this great match but to have this interactive experience so fans can see something that they've never seen in televised golf before."

Have you told Tiger about the no ropes thing?  He seems to me a guy that's spent most of his life keeping the adoring public at some distance....   I assume Sign Boy will have the Purrell?

Here's Shack on the timing and pricing:

Love the lights, love the holiday weekend play and my sources are saying the streaming price will not be substantial. Some--other than millennials who like to share passwords--will find dirt cheap, in the $5 to $15 range, $20 likely the top end depending on how you access. The goal is to make this available via as many options as possible, not to launch and promote one entity.

Yes, TNT will be announcing, which means Ernie Johnson welcoming us in a PGA Championship Thursday flashback. But as our poll last month showed, 22% of you were willing to pay in that price range.

Also undefined:

Mickelson said the format would be match play, and details are being worked out that would allow for various challenges during the match, such as longest drive, closest to the hole, longest putt and closest out of a bunker.

I like the long drive, though what does Vegas have as the odds of either guy actually finding the fairway?

 Tiger must be taking it seriously, as he's already fine-tuning his equipment:

“We’ve been working on it, experimenting with different shafts and different lofts on my driver and 3-wood,” he said. “Just trying to figure it out. Same thing with my two-iron.

Just trying different things. I’ve still got two more days and I’ll still be monkeying around with a couple things and come game time we’ll see what I go with.” 

Woods has used a TaylorMade M3 driver and fairway wood throughout the 2017-18 season. At the PGA, he played his M3 driver bent to 8.5 degrees with a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 70TX shaft. He used a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 90 TX shaft with his 13-degree M3 fairway wood. Reports say he’s experimenting with adding loft to his driver this week.

Might be time to give that senior flex shaft a go?

As for those side bets, this doesn't add much:

Woods and Mickelson will also be making “side-challenges ” – aka side bets – during

play. The money won will go to the charity of each golfer’s choice. 

“As part of the live event, both Woods and Mickelson will selectively make side-challenges against one another during the match. For instance, Woods or Mickelson could raise the stakes by challenging the other to a long-drive, closest-to-the-pin or similar competition during a hole as they play their match, with money being donated to the winning golfer’s charity of choice,” a release said.

Gee, wonder what charity Tiger will pick?  More to the point, though, is that if you're telling us where the money goes but avoiding a discussion of its source, we have to assume there's a reason....  If it's TBS money, that's one thing, but there's been talk of them using a crowbar on their very own wallets....

News From Augusta - Nope, not another land grab to secure the perimeter, just a renovation of one of their iconic buildings:

The Augusta Chronicle reports that Augusta National is undergoing an extensive restoration of the Eisenhower Cabin. 

The structure – named for Dwight D. Eisenhower – was built for the former president and his wife, Mamie, in 1953. Eisenhower became a member at Augusta in the late 1940s but the cabin became necessary after Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election and his visits to Augusta brought increased security demands. 

The cabin is near Augusta’s 10th tee and a practice putting green. 

Per The Augusta Chronicle, plans titled “ANGC – Cabin Expansion” were filed earlier this year with the Augusta Planning and Development Department and an Augusta National spokesman has confirmed work has started on changes that are expected to be completed by October. 

The restoration will update the cabin’s infrastructure to reflect modern standards while also preserving its historical feel. There will also be 15 holly trees and 61 azaleas planted on the east side of the cabin.

Well, unless they're taking reservations....

Silly Item Of The Day -  Golf Digest must have been saving this one up for a slow news day:

The Unwritten Rules Of Mixing Golf With Matrimony

It's every bit as awful as you'd expect, though with a few nice anecdotes, such as this one:

Or you can get Justin Thomas to help. Sean Powell, a fan from Sioux Falls, S.D., reached 

out to Thomas on Instagram with a request: "Any chance the reigning Player of the Year could lend a hand in a marriage proposal?" To Powell's surprise, Thomas responded within minutes, and in the affirmative. After two months of coordination with Thomas and the PGA Tour, Powell and his girlfriend, Andrea, were in the gallery at Charlotte. On the first hole, Thomas walked over to greet Powell and handed Andrea a golf ball inscribed "Will you?" Then Powell went down on one knee. Video captured Andrea nodding her head up and down, although it wasn't clear if the gesture was in response to Powell, or if she would accept a memento from a major champion. 

"I thought he was just going to sign autographs," Andrea says. "Then Sean and Justin started talking like they were old friends that hadn't seen each other in a while. I was very confused and shocked—How do they know each other?— but the moment Justin asked if I was Andrea, I knew what was happening!" 

"I'm really happy that I didn't screw it up for them," Thomas says.

Not to worry, JT, screwing up the marriage is their job....

Might Be Time To Move On -  Did someone mention Justin Thomas?  This bit from his Ridgewood presser is both amusing and telling:

As a follow-up, a reporter asked Thomas, “How far do you go back in your memory of stuff that really still annoys you after all these years?” Apparently Thomas still isn’t over another loss.

“I totally choked the U.S. Kids when I was 8 years old,” Thomas said. “I shot 32, 30 — I shot 37 on the second round. I’m dead serious. I lost in a playoff. I lost — I got up-and-down on the first playoff hole then I lost on the second playoff hole. Made bogey.”

Thomas said he didn’t remember the exact name of the player who beat him. But he doubled down that he’s still irked. 

“I’m serious. Look it up,” he said. “Jekyll Island. My dad was caddying for me. I choked it. I was so mad. … It’s dad’s fault.”

It's always the caddie's fault... They need their little grudges, don't they?

Ryder Cup Radicals -  The premise is a bit shaky, but given the slowness of the golf news cycle, any port in a storm.  Golf Digest has asked Luke Kerr-Dineen and Shane Ryan to e-mail their darkest Ryder Cup thoughts, which started last week with Shane's status update on the U.S. team:

Koepka: Two majors to his name, but has to read about how nobody likes him and he’s boring. Clearly a confidence crusher. 

Johnson: Another year, another 0-4 in the majors. Worse, he got beat at the U.S. Open

by his younger doppelganger. He’s crushed. 

Thomas: Just a slew of missed short putts in the year’s final major, and he’s going in on a sour note. CRUSHED. 

Reed: Obviously coasting on his Masters all season, will go in over-confident. CRUSHED. 

Watson: No bit, has legitimately been terrible since mid-June (and cost me my fantasy championship). CRUSHED. 

Spieth: Doing his best Rory impression this year as the nearly man, still huge ?? with the putter. CRUSHED. 

Fowler: No matter what I say about him here, he will go 1-1-2 at the Ryder Cup. CRUSHED? 

Simpson: Was beyond bad at Gleneagles, will definitely get paired with a fading Bubba in Paris. CRUSHED!

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting, but I think the concept he's going for there is....well, CRUSHED!.

 In this week's installment Shane Ryan confesses to being an American.....  But a Yank in King Arthur's Court, it seems.  Luke tries to talk him down, but the more interesting bit involves the Captain's picks, most notably Phil:

SHANE

No, you’re absolutely right, there’s no planet on which he deserves a pick beyond the planet where “team chemistry” is over-valued to the extreme. (And even on this planet, we have to conveniently forget that Mickelson staged a mutiny just four years ago.) 

I was talking with a few media members at Greensboro last weekend, and one of them raised the possibility of Mickelson becoming a vice captain if he didn’t get picked. And all I could think was “hellllll no.” If I were Furyk and decided not to take Phil, I’d keep him as far away from the team as I possibly could. I’d show photos of him to every customs agent in France and sick Interpol on him the minute he entered the country. 

As much as the rest of the team loves Phil, do we really think he’s going to swallow his pride if he gets snubbed? The chances of him reprising his ’14 shenanigans the minute Furyk does something wrong are about, oh … 95 percent. And yes, this means I trust him less than I trust Bubba Watson, who was in the same position in ’16 and was, by all counts, a great addition in his role as vice captain. That’s not Phil … not even a little. If you’re Aerys Targaryen, you don’t let Tywin Lannister into the walls of King’s Landing after you’ve betrayed him. 

(Looks around for other Game of Thrones nerds …)

That's not a terribly flattering portrait of the guy...  But, we all know the fix is in.  Furyk owes his captaincy to Phil, therefore the chances of not pick Phil are asymptotically approaching zero....